Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerMets manager Terry Collins talks to his players in the dugout during Thursday's 9-8 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

NEW YORK — There had to be a moment Thursday afternoon, as Terry Collins watched another game drift away like a plastic bag in swirling Citi Field winds, when the thought crossed his mind.

“Well, that didn’t work.”

Collins, the fiery Mets manager, had resorted to the fiery speech the night before. He yelled. He pleaded. He told his players to stop feeling sorry for themselves, insisting once again that they were better than they were playing (even if this point was certainly debatable).

Then, barely 15 hours later, his team was down 7-0 to the Pirates after three innings.

“Obviously,” Collins said, “that was not the game plan.”

He said this with a hard-earned postgame smile. No one should credit his speech as the reason the Mets pulled off the second-biggest comeback in franchise history in this strange, 9-8 victory. There were plenty of bigger factors, starting with Carlos Beltran’s hot bat and Pittsburgh reliever Jose Veras’ inability to throw a strike.

Still: This was an important, tone-setting moment in Collins’ first season as Mets manager. The Mets are still 26-30 and going nowhere fast, and, unless they have an unexpected hot streak soon, absolutely should be sellers when the trading deadline rolls around next month.

The major changes in Flushing will happen only when the roster changes. But this is about more than one season for Collins and the Mets now. This is about a clubhouse full of young players, some who will be part of the future here, who needed to know the recent results were unacceptable.

So after a second straight uninspired loss to the Pirates on Wednesday night, Collins let them know.

“I sit here every night trying to figure out what can we do to get us over the top,” Collins said in his news conference a few minutes after Wednesday’s loss. “I don’t have the answers. I’m searching. I’m wringing the rag dry coming in here and having to look at you guys (in the media) and you look at me like I’m a stinking fool.”

It became an instant YouTube hit, not quite Jim Mora yelling “Playoffs!” but still a fine performance. If the Steelers have the Terrible Towel, the Mets really should be thinking about passing out “Wringing Rags” in Collins’ honor for their next in-game promotion.

The manager had had enough, and considering the Mets’ past three regimes, it was refreshing to see. From Art Howe to Willie Randolph to Jerry Manuel, the Mets have had one passive leader after another.

Collins is different — not quite a baseball version of Tom Coughlin, but certainly cut from the same cloth. Beltran put it this way: “It was different from what we’re used to having in the past, and that’s good.”

“That attitude is very good for the younger guys to get exposure too,” said pitcher R.A. Dickey, who has seen his share of speeches. “Once you leave the minor leagues and get here, it’s a whole different animal. And that kind of speech will remind you of that very quickly.”

There is a danger, of course, of players tuning him out. He can’t play this card once a week. The rap on Collins in his prior two managerial stops, in Houston and Anaheim, was that his style wore out his players.

You do wonder: If Collins snaps like this in early June, how will he react in mid-August if the Mets are in last place and all his best players are wearing different uniforms? Still, the biggest mistake any coach can make is not being himself, and Collins was speaking from the heart.

“Let me tell you something: I am who I am,” he said, suddenly channeling his inner Rex Ryan. “I think I’ve matured through the years of being able to control things a little better, but make no mistake about it, if we played ping-pong, I’m going to try to kick your butt.

“That fire still burns inside or I wouldn’t have taken this job.”

It is a job that would drive even the calmest of men crazy. Collins finally reached his breaking point, and letting his fury out had to feel good. And, if you’re a Mets fan, it had to feel good to watch.